Efforts to clean LA Arboretum lake seen in ‘Fantasy Island’ and movies unite tribe and local groups

“It looks dirty,” says Linda Candelaria, acting chairwoman of the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe of Baldwin Lake at the Arboretum in Arcadia on Wednesday, September 5, 2018. “I remember coming here and it looked so beautiful.” The Gabrielino-Tongva want to see the polluted lake restored with a recreation of a Tongva village with kiches and tomols. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

The 400,000 annual visitors to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens can view lush orchids and stunning roses, stroll under sprawling Engelmann Oaks and tiptoe through a wide sample of herbs and shrubs thriving in scenic gardens — an oasis of green amid a gray, suburban jungle.

But not at Baldwin Lake nor Tule Pond, the 127-acre park’s only true waterways.

The rare, natural lake and pond are dying, an ironic twist on a place that substituted for vine-rich jungles in numerous “Tarzan” movies.

The lake and guest house, a Queen Anne cottage on the shore, were taken over by Hollywood producers, who used the faux exotic locale to film hundreds of movies, from “Tarzan” and B-movies such as “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” to the Oscar-winning drama “The Best Years of Our Lives” and Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Notorious.”

The lake served as a backdrop for the TV show “Fantasy Island” from 1977-1983, and more recently, Katy Perry’s video “Roar.”

But Baldwin Lake has shrunk. Bank trees slip into its murky, algae-filled water. Nineteenth Century decorative walls are entombed in the lake’s murky bottom.

Run-off from oily streets and the 210 Freeway contaminate Baldwin Lake and Tule Pond with a mixture of muddy silt and high levels of lead and chromium.

Hazardous

An August 2015 report from Tetra Tech, a Pasadena engineering firm, found hazardous levels of lead and chromium in Tule Pond and elevated levels of both in Baldwin Lake.

Dredging both would be necessary to restore them to appropriate depths for plants and fish to thrive. However, the Tetra Tech report concluded any dredging material from Tule Pond “must be disposed of as hazardous waste.”

While visitors may not notice the dire state of the lake unless they get up close, the migratory birds have gotten the message.

The arboretum has seen a 22 percent drop in historic bird sightings, and migratory birds no longer consider it a place to stop as part of the Pacific Flyway, according to a report on the website citing the Pasadena Audubon Society.

Baldwin Lake is named after the founder of Arcadia, the quixotic Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin, who bought the land in 1875. He planted hundreds of varieties of trees and excavated the marshy, natural springs bubbling up from a crease in the basin into a 15-to-18-foot-deep, four-acre lake.

It’s since shrunk to a depth of about 2 feet.

Revitalization

A group of nonprofits, nearby cities and the county want to reverse this trend but face an uphill battle.

With approval of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board expected in October, they hope to begin a feasibility study for the Arcadia Wash Ecosystem Restoration project.

It could set in motion a four-pronged plan to clean dirty storm water from the concrete wash, inject a portion into the underground Raymond Basin and divert the rest into Baldwin Lake, explained Vanessa Hevener, environmental services officer for the city of Arcadia.

While Tule Pond, now bone dry, is not part of the project, Hevener said it could be added later in the process.

“The idea would be to restore Tule Pond that goes to Baldwin Lake,” she said. The whole project — still without a price tag — could revitalize both in about five years.

“It would be fantastic to have both restored and to restore this natural, aquatic ecosystem. That is the ideal,” said Arboretum CEO Richard Schulhoff during a phone interview Tuesday.

Right now, the natural springs no longer feed Baldwin Lake, leaving it a static, algae-encrusted body of water with oil slicks and crumbling concrete edges. The Arboretum uses potable water to fill it, Schulhoff said.

The “Save Baldwin Lake” group, the Arboretum Foundation, the Arcadia Historical Society and the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe are supportive of the cities and county’s plan, even if they have different objectives.

The historical society and the Foundation are sponsoring a study with the goal of restoring the decorative shoreline done in the late 19th Century. They will hold a presentation and ceremony on Sept. 13 with a plaque honoring Baldwin.

Native American recognition

The Gabrielino-Tongva people, who number about 1,800 in California, want the world to know that they were there first — well before Baldwin and other white settlers, said Charles Alvarez, a tribal councilperson from West Hills.

“We were the first Native American tribe here in the Valley. They believe in taking care of Mother Earth,” he said before a tour Wednesday.

Some 3,000 years before Baldwin bought the 4,000 acres of Rancho Santa Anita in 1875, and before a later owner carved off 127 acres for the arboretum, the Tongva — called Gabrielino Indians by the Spanish — built a village near the natural springs that some say was already a lake.

They called the region Aleupkigna, meaning land of waters and streams. Their ancestors want to see a Tongva village with tomols, a specific type of canoe, and huts or kiches recreated there.

“We used to have a village there,” said Linda Candelaria, acting chairwoman of the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe. “But the Tongva people got lost and the area has been let go.”

During a visit Wednesday, Candelaria peered into the hut erected on the banks of the polluted Tule Pond, and said the name used for the hut was incorrect.

“And this little place is tucked way in the back. They should make this area much nicer,” she said.

The former Hacienda Heights resident stood at the lake’s edge peering into the lifeless body of water.

“It looks dirty,” she began. “I remember coming here and it looked so beautiful. Now it is not like it used to be.”

The Hollywood takeover left little room for an homage to Native Americans, Candelaria said.

“I feel it should have been left alone because it was part of California history,” she said.

Activist Stan Raddon has lived four blocks from the Arboretum for 47 years. He wants to see the county and the water board restore the pond and lake to the way it was when the Tongva lived there.

But he acknowledges they don’t have as strong a voice as Hollywood filmmakers or others loyal to Lucky Baldwin’s influence on the land.

“I hear voices for Lucky Baldwin and the movie studios that want to use it,” Raddon said. “But who is the voice for the lake, for the endangered species and for the Native Americans?”